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The new cultural history--and you: Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez introduces a distinctive method of engaging with the past.

Article Excerpt
The past, we are often told, is a foreign country. We may add that History. is a passport that allows as to visit that country. The trip will necessarily be short, so everything that we learn has to be understood as just a small part of what actually happened. Our experience in the past will be fragmentary. Like any traveller, we have to avoid seeing what we expect to see, leaving behind our prejudices and pre-formed opinions. Since nobody can completely accomplish this, and we always perceive reality through the prism of our own experience, ever), successive visit to the past will reveal different things. This doesn't imply that we cannot make well documented and soundly reasoned History, only that the past continues to change as we change.

Types of History

Until the beginning of the 20th century History was mostly conceived as the record of what important people and institutions, including nations, had done. This reflected the interest of the historians of the time, themselves members of the elites and usually deeply imbued with nationalism. The best of this approach is what we call traditional Political History. This situation could not be maintained as new political and social groups entered public life. With them came exploration of ordinary people's experiences. From these new perceptions eventually would emerge Social History. It aimed to describe the everyday experiences of unremarkable people, and to explain how they adapted to change or guided it, as well as their relationship with political power. Today, no good Political History can ignore the many discoveries and formulations of Social History.

There is, however, a serious problem with Social History:...

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